Life History: Males patrol meadows with a low flight, during warm daytime hours. Females lay eggs on twigs and plants other than the host violets. Caterpillars feed on violet leaves and hibernate when in the third to fourth stage of development.

Adult Food: Favorite nectar sources are composites, including black-eyed susans, dandelions, and ox-eyed daisy. Plants from other families, such as verbena and dogbane, are visited less often.

Habitat: Usually wet places marshes, wet aspen groves.

Range: Eastern British Columbia east through southern Canada and northern United States to Newfoundland; south to northcentral Oregon, central Colorado, northeast Tennessee, and northwest North Carolina. Due to its adaptability to disturbed habitats, the butterfly is expanding its range southward from the southeastern states.

Conservation: Not usually of conservation concern.

NCGR: G5 - Demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery.

Management Needs: None reported.

Taxonomy Notes:

Images of Boloria bellona

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The map below displays all BAMONA data for this species and has three different data layers:1. All records (yellow dots) 2. Recently verified records (orange dots)* 3. US county records (purple)

There are also three base layers: 1. Satellite 2. Normal 3. Hybrid

How to use the map:Click on the map and move your mouse to pan.Zoom by using the plus [+] and minus [-] on the left side of the map.To change which map layers are displayed, click on the plus sign [+] on the right side of the map and turn on/off the data layers and base layers.

*The orange dots on the map provide access to information about the 400 most recently verified sightings of this species. Sometimes, there are several records at the same location. Use the table view to access these records.

By default, the fifty most recently verified sightings are below. Sort by Observation Date to see the most recent sightings, or filter the sightings by region to get a regional list.

To report technical difficulties or errors, Contact Us.This project is based upon work previously supported by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Program and the USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center.Primary financial support for this project comes from our advertisers.